Housing Poll

Freestanding house.

This was easy for me...I like the extra space and not having neighbors with whom I have shared walls!

I would take the free standing house. Having a large yard, established neihborhood etc means a lot more. Also the API 8 is pretty good compared to where we are now. A lot had to do with the individual child as well. The HS my kids will go to in a year is a 3. I would love an 8.

I think I would also be more worried about the kids damaging something if it was all new. If the older home had carpet, I would ask if we could remove it. Hate that stuff.

If you have small kids, the house with the yard.

And the school ratings are not particularly meaningful. Try to talk to parents with kiddos at the schools. If they are happy, then the school is probably pretty darn good.

Free standing house everytime. I hate condos or any planned community. I rented a condo years ago and it was nice but you have these busy body people who are the housing authority who never introduce themselves wathing your every move. If you do something they don't like they are on the phone to your landlord in a heart beat. It like living with Nazis.

Even if you own the condo the association can tell you what kind of patio furniture you can have, if you need to replace a screen door they tell which one or two they approve, what kind of flowers you can plant, you can't plant a tomato plant ...... total yuk

You had me a big backyard! Worth it's weigh in gold.

House, hands down! I've had experience with both. From our experience the condo association is a pain in the neck. You are sooo close to the neighbors and practically no yard. I guess it really depends on whether you'd value the yard and your own space vs the swimming pool.

House - condo is a nice way of saying apartment. I gave up living in apartments when I had kids. Larger house, established neighborhood, good schools.
You can call the other district excellent and award winning, but the differance in education is the effort you and your child put into it.

The single-family home wins hands down. Neighborhood associations are the devil.

Do we have a doggie?

I'd probably pick the free-standing house mainly because I constantly read comments here about bad neighbors in apartment/condo complexes. :P Maybe if you could get the scoop on the neighbors it would help?

I *do* love new with granite, hard-wood, etc. :) I totally get the pull there.

Since it's a rental and not a purchase, I would take the home in the district with the better schools.

I'd take the free standing house every time.
I can't stand having neighbors on the other side of the wall.
I don't like feeling like I'm living in an egg carton.
You can be neat as a pin but if your neighbors are slobs, you'll have roaches, too.
A large yard is great for the kids and pets.

Definitely the house, having a yard means everything to kids. We have basiclly no yard right now and I would much prefer a house with yard even if it was not so new. About the schools, are their any good charter schools? Also, you could try an interdistrict transfer to the school you like. Really though a score of 8 vs 10 might not mean that much.

Freestanding house.

Not a fan of wall sharing.
You never know who you'll get attached to you!

We have always chosen the school, THEN the place to live.

I would check out this link about API before making the decision:

http://www.greatschools.org/students/local-facts-resource...

I'd do research on the makeup of the scool with th 8 API and see if you can figure out the difference in it and the other school.

I know you want an either/or answer about which place to live, but it's just not that simple to me...

Dawn

Because of OUR family...we would have done the house. We all really like to be outside and have a little more 'space'. We've done both...new condo...and larger home w/ backyard. My daughter is currently in a school rated 9...but she attended Kindergarten at a school rated 8. Both were great. Thing is...API measures test scores/academic stuff...which is not always the most important things. I would see if you can talk to parents from the different schools. My daughters elementary school ranked 4th in the state as far as test scores...but their special-ed program is somewhat lacking and we felt like it was a struggle to get help for our 6 year old. Our four year old (language/cognitive delay) attends preschool at a different school that has a much lower rating...but attracts a lot of special-ed and struggling kids...because they have a better program in place for them. I would never send my daughter there...that's not where her 'needs' are. I would find out what's most important to you as far as schools...and then ask around. Some schools have really strong parent involvement...some have really great after school or extracurricular programs...in our case, the language immersion program was a big reason we put her where we did...but they also have an exceptional after school music program and choir (just another reason they have a long waiting list). I wouldn't take the rating as the ultimate authority on a 'good' school. Good luck :)

It depends.

I don't have a problem with small condos... and the nice finishes, pool, and convenience would be a treat. When my daughter was a baby we had a downtown apartment the size "roughly" of a cardboard box... and honestly it wasn't bad with the 3 of us. My FAVORITE thing about it was that it was so small, I was basically forced to get out every day to go for walks and get fresh air. The location made meeting up with friends for coffee or just a lunch at the park SO easy.

On the other hand, a nice large house will give you more freedom if you like to entertain, and a nice big yeard would be a treat for the kids.

assuming price is the same - I think what would make my mind is- can you make changes to the house? Can you paint the walls?AND look at yourselves...are you the type of family that likes to hang out at home a lot, or are you out-and about? Is how your house looks inside a matter of personal pride, or is having a martha-stewart ready kitchen not a big deal to you?

For me, in all honesty- I would go for location, location... assuming the price is the same.

Good Luck!
-M.

PS: I grew up in a condo,and have rented several... sure neighbors and the landlord CAN be a pain... but unless you are a party animal I can't imagine it being that big of a deal. If you know anyone who lives in the same neighborhood, ask them how it is. If you live in the condo though, the may have a pet policy, and if your dog is an outdoor dog- that may not work!

I'd choose the new condo because my kids love to swim. I love new space and the better schools if I had school aged children that would be attending one of those schools.

I'd pick the condo.. I like updated interiors :)

Schol rating doesnt matter as much as how you feel about the school class size and if your kids know kids there and so on....
it would depend on the houses nieghborhood. if it was in a place condusive for the kids playing with friends outside i';d pick that. i want my daughter to be able to run and play with friends without M. on top of her, even if the condo had a pool and playground i;d still feel a need to walk there, where if you have the house you can sit outside and read or talk to neighbors while the kids play. plus walking a dog in the snow and rain stink...id rather the yard

Depends on how much time you are going to be spending at home. If you are busy people, children in sports and active. I think I would choose the condo. I like the idea of free use of a pool with no maintenance. The school situation will be good if you intend on staying in the that district.

If you will spend a lot of time at home, and use the backyard a lot..go for the house. You know it will drive you and your family crazy to be crunched in a condo that is too small if you spend a lot of time in it.

If the rental costs are exactly the same....
I think I would go with the condo because of the updates and the use of the pool. The school rating wouldn't be that much of a factor.

That is a tough one.
Generally speaking, I would go with the freestanding house (even if the sq footage was the same) due to the closeness of neighbors. I DID in fact rent a townhouse that had just been upgraded inside (tile floors, granite countertops, etc) when we were building our current home. The problems we had were the neighbors. I was just plain claustrophobic. And I hated feeling like I needed to keep my kids cooped up inside most of the time--because every 15 feet outside was another door to potential danger lurking. My kids could disappear in a heartbeat if I looked away for 5 seconds. They were 4 & 7 at the time.
Then, we had a neighbor that liked to party on the weekends, and her boyfriend would come home late, and they would get late night visitors in the parking lot (drugs?)... the parking spaces were directly below the window of my kids' bedroom. :(

BUT, where we live, there really isn't any ESL percentage that I am aware of. There may be, but it is so miniscule that it isn't even on the radar here. So I am not sure how much of a factor that would be or SHOULD be... ?

We have a GSD, so the yard size I would notice, but not be an issue. We had a 10 x 10 ft square area in the townhouse we rented. And that is WHY we rented a townhouse--nobody else's insurance allowed rentals to folks with a GSD. The townhouse owners were a private couple rebuilding their retirement by investing in the condos, renovating them, renting them and then eventually planning to resell them once the entire complex was done. Their grown daughter had a GSD and they LOVED them and held no prejudices against ours. :)

You can work around the yard space for the dog. Really. As long as you have an inside dog, you can make it work, I promise. So I wouldn't give that too much weight due to the dog. For your kids, yard size might be a bigger deal, though.
As far as the schools go (aside from the ESL question).. so how many of those fundraisers are you going to want to participate in? And how much pressure will there be on your kids (and you) to spend a lot of $$ participating in them? Will there be social pressures on your kids due to the affluence of the students' families? Will your kids want to be involved in all those clubs, or will they just be something that is nice to know exists, but your kids won't be involved in them?

That is a tough tough call.

At this point in my life, I know that my son and I would take the condo.
No second thoughts.

Schools, schools, schools, schools. Please don't just look at the API, though. Ask around, find about the culture of the schools. Are they standardized test mills, or do they take more of a whole-child approach?

But for me, I'd find the school district I liked and then look for housing.

I would do the new condo. Less maintenance means more times with the kids. It's great to have an association pool. And, I'm guessing there are green belts or play areas in the neighborhood too. Plus, better schools. If you don't need the extra 200/300 square feet, then definitely the condo.

I guess it depends on who your renters are. When my husband and I were renting (before kids) our two main criteria were that they were close to work and a reasonable rent. We were saving for a home and renting was a pit-stop for us. That's the only perspective I have, as we never rented with kids. All the other ammenities didn't sell us - in fact, we thought we were wasting money on a lot of that stuff so stayed with the lower rent and no pool / fitness room etc.

im not sure how many kids you have and their ages. but from a personal stand point i would pick the brand new condo, (just b/c i personally would enjoy the brand new amenties). however, do your kids play outside alot, b/c then the yard may be the way to go. if you're looking in irvine, (i can't imagine too many shabby houses, lol). i pay more rent to live in a neighborhood that has an api=10 charter school, but there is NO children in this neighborhood! another thing to take into acct is how close you like your neighbors, you're not going to have as much privacy as the home.

I would go with the one that has a better feel for the people. I live in a neighborhood where I know almost all of my neighbors and we spend time together. We visit each other, we eat dinner and are great friends with a couple and the whole neighborhood is truly a community that watches out for each other. That to me is the most important factor. We want to live in a place where we 'belong', where we are with 'our people' if that makes sense. People who live similarly to us - for us that means living green, eating and shopping locally, having a very community based atmosphere where you actually say hi to each other and don't just drive into the garage and never know your neighbors. We walk to farmers markets together, we know the local business owners and they know us and our kids. We are close to downtown, there are parks, and art studios and local restaurants & markets all in walking distance. These things are very important to us. Our schools aren't top of the line, but they're moving up. While, it's moot for us because we send our son to a private language immersion school, if our public school provided immersion courses like we desired, we would be happy to send our child there.

So, if it were me, that's how I would base my choice. Whichever neighborhood fits best with our lifestyle.

Best of luck,
S.

I have lived in both situations - that being said; I pick the house if you have kids, Condo if you do not have young children. Houses with big yards are MUCH better when you have little ones; condo's have nicer amenities but do not give your children there own space to play alone (ie in the back yard).

I would go with the condo and the better schools. If you can live near a school with API 10 then do it! I live in the LAUSD school district (which has really good and really bad schools) and I bought my house based on the the API of the local schools (it is also a good neighborhood). I prefer to be closer to work and I prefer to be in a high rise apartment (I'm from NY) but my son's education is more important to me than where I'm living. My son can go from Kindergarten through HS and I don't have to worry about finding another school.